Date on the steps of St Pauls

We glanced at each other and giggled as we both unsteadily pulled out our iPhones.

“That” I said, “Is why I moved to London”. And gripping the bottle of wine under my jacket hard with my elbow, managed to take the wonky shot of St Pauls Cathedral, towering iconically over our heads. One of many pictures I have taken, every time I’ve passed over the last 3 years. A few glasses of wine inside me.. this one definitely wouldn’t be the best.

Dave looked down at me. Gripped my elbow and grinned “lets go”,nodding towards the illuminated spectacle, before heading off up towards the steps. I followed behind precariously, concentrating hard on my steps in the dark. It was only the third date. I’m sure falling over would not impress.

At the top of the steps we sat, in between two collosal stone pillars in front of the giant wooden door, which made even “Big Dave” look tiny, and I pulled the bottle of wine from under my jacket. Dave produced 2 glasses from his. I kicked off my heels while he poured the wine and we sat back and got to know each other a bit better, right there, in the dark, on the steps of St Paul’s. My favourite building in London.

“Is this even legal?” he whispered in my ear, and I blushed slightly before replying “I think we might get away with it”, with a wink.

It was a beautiful warm balmy night, the wine was starting ‘fuzz’ in my head, and every now and then I would dart a look over to my new companion, to try and study his profile whilst he wasn’t looking.. every now and then he would catch me me back, and we’d both pretend we hadn’t noticed.

Around an hour, and a bottle wine passed us, we had both relaxed into giggling, sparkling rapport, and I realised I was fighting that feeling once again. All of a sudden, the need to say something started to boil up inside of me. ‘What am I doing??’ I thought. ‘You can’t say that, you’ll ruin the moment’. I resisted, but as I turned to Dave again I realised I couldn’t fight it any more.

Was it the wine? I’ll never know, but I knew if I didn’t say it then, I knew I might not get the chance.